Embodiments of the invention relate to communicating changes between virtual and real (i.e., physical or real-world) objects.
A virtual world is a simulated environment which may be inhabited by users. The users may interact with virtual objects and locations throughout the virtual world. Users may also interact with one another via avatars. An avatar generally provides a graphical representation of an individual within the virtual world environment. Avatars are usually presented to other users as two or three-dimensional graphical representations that resemble a human individual. Frequently, virtual worlds allow multiple users to enter the virtual environment and interact with one another.
Virtual worlds are said to provide an immersive environment, as they typically appear similar to the real world. Virtual environments, complete with avatars and virtual items, are typically presented as images on a display screen. Furthermore, objects in the virtual world tend to follow rules related to gravity, topography, locomotion, physics and kinematics. Of course, virtual worlds can suspend or alter these rules as well as provide other imaginative or fanciful environments. Current techniques exist for creating a virtual replica of a real-world item (e.g., an item in digital or physical form existing in the real world, and existing outside the virtual world). However, while such virtual replicas may share the appearance of the real-world item, these replicas often do not contain all the content of the physical item. Furthermore, such replicas are not synchronized with their corresponding real-world counterpart to reflect changes made to the real-world item.